Monday, September 19, 2016

Brain-sensing technology developed by Stanford scientists allows typing at rate of 12 words per minute

A team led by electrical engineer Krishna Shenoy developed technology
that detects brain signals to move a cursor. Animals trained to copy
text using the technology were able to type at a rate of up to 12 words
per minute.

September 12, 2016

Brain-sensing technology developed by Stanford scientists allows typing at rate of 12 words per minute

Technology
for reading signals directly from the brain developed by Stanford Bio-X
scientists could provide a way for people with movement disorders to
communicate.

By Amy Adams

It does not take an infinite number of monkeys to type a
passage of Shakespeare. Instead, it takes a single monkey equipped with
brain-sensing technology – and a cheat sheet.

A team led by electrical engineer Krishna
Shenoy developed technology that detects brain signals to move a cursor.
Animals trained to copy text using the technology were able to type at a
rate of up to 12 words per minute.

That technology, developed by Stanford Bio-X scientists Krishna Shenoy, a professor of electrical engineering at Stanford, and postdoctoral fellow Paul Nuyujukian,
directly reads brain signals to drive a cursor moving over a keyboard.
In an experiment conducted with monkeys, the animals were able to
transcribe passages from the New York Times and Hamlet at a rate of up to 12 words per minute.

Earlier versions of the technology have already been tested
successfully in people with paralysis, but the typing was slow and
imprecise. This latest work tests improvements to the speed and accuracy
of the technology that interprets brain signals and drives the cursor.

“Our results demonstrate that this interface may have great promise
for use in people,” said Nuyujukian, who will join Stanford faculty as
an assistant professor of bio-engineering in 2017. “It enables a typing
rate sufficient for a meaningful conversation.”

Communication challenges

Other approaches for helping people with movement disabilities type
involve tracking eye movements or, as in the case of Stephen Hawking,
tracking movements of individual muscles in the face. However, these
have limitations, and can require a degree of muscle control that might
be difficult for some people. For example, Hawking wasn’t able to use
eye-tracking software due to drooping eyelids and other people find
eye-tracking technology tiring.

Directly reading brain signals could overcome some of these
challenges and provide a way for people to communicate their thoughts
and emotions.

The technology developed by the Stanford team involves a
multi-electrode array implanted in the brain to directly read signals
from a region that ordinarily directs hand and arm movements used to
move a computer mouse.

It’s the algorithms for translating those signals and making letter
selections that the team members have been improving. They had tested
individual components of the updated technology in prior monkey studies
but had never demonstrated the combined improvements in typing speed and
accuracy.

“The interface we tested is exactly what a human would use,”
Nuyujukian said. “What we had never quantified before was the typing
rate that could be achieved.” Using these high-performing algorithms
developed by Nuyujukian and his colleagues, the animals could type more
than three times faster than with earlier approaches.

To type or not to type

The monkeys testing the technology had been trained to type letters
corresponding to what they see on a screen. For this study, the animals
transcribed passages of New York Times articles or, in one example, Hamlet. The results, which are published September 12 in the Proceedings of the IEEE, show that the technology allows a monkey to type with only its thoughts at a rate of up to 12 words per minute.

People using this system would likely type more slowly, the
researchers said, while they think about what they want to communicate
or how to spell words. People might also be in more distracting
environments and in some cases could have additional impairments that
slow the ultimate communication rate.

“What we cannot quantify is the cognitive load of figuring out what words you are trying to say,” Nuyujukian said.

Despite that, Nuyujukian said even a rate lower than the 12 words per
minute achieved by monkeys would be a significant advance for people
who aren’t otherwise able to communicate effectively or reliably.

“Also understand that we’re not using auto completion here like your
smartphone does where it guesses your words for you,” Nuyujukian said.
Eventually the technology could be paired with the kinds of word
completion technology used by smartphones or tablets to improve typing
speeds.
In addition to proving the technology, this study showed that the
implanted sensor could be stable for several years. The animals had the
implants used to test this and previous iterations of the technology for
up to four years prior to this experiment, with no loss of performance
or side effects in the animals.

Shenoy and Nuyujukian are part of the Brain-Machine Interface initiative of the Stanford Neurosciences Institute,
which is working to develop this and other methods of interfacing
technology directly with the brain. The team is running a clinical trial
now, in conjunction with Jaimie Henderson, professor of neurosurgery, to test this latest interface in people.If the group is successful, technologies for directly interpreting
brain signals could create a new way for people with paralysis to move
and communicate with loved ones.

Additional authors include Jonathan Kao, a graduate student in
electrical engineering, and Stephen Ryu, a consulting professor in
electrical engineering. Krishna Shenoy is also professor (by courtesy)
of neurobiology and bioengineering and a member of Stanford Bio-X and
the Stanford Neurosciences Institute.

This work was supported by the Stanford Medical Scholars Program,
the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowship,
the National Science Foundation, the Christopher and Dana Reeve
Paralysis Foundation, the Burroughs Welcome Fund, the Defense Advanced
Research Projects Agency and the U.S. National Institutes of Health.

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